Quote:
Originally Posted by GrumpyOldMan
Okay, let's see if I got this right:
There are about 153 million taxpayers in the US.
The total Federal Government payroll is about $135 billion dollars annually.
That means $135,000,000,000 / 153,000,000 is about $888 (on average) per tax payer.
I am suffering over this extreme taxation, $888 of an average of $25,000, of my hard-earned income to pay for those Federal employees. So, about $3/day off is billed to the average taxpayer.
I would appreciate if anyone can point out my error here? Doesn't seem like something to get excited about considering all the actual waste in the Federal Government.
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Some things that will complicate the equation:
- If this covers payroll only then there should be an additional calculation for benefits
- Not all taxpayers actually pay Federal Income tax
- This payroll amount might be for just the Executive branch and might not account for the amounts for Congress or the Military
Let's take your number, $3, as a lower limit and allow that it might be as much as $10. So at your number the taxpayer is buying the govt worker a soda and at the higher number the taxpayer is buying a beer.
At a reasonable salary (less than what the President makes, less than most of Congress, more than a McDonalds worker) it would take more than 50 taxpayers donating a beer or more than 160 taxpayers donating a soda to pay for just one government employee to have one day off. (If that salary is too high then just cut the number in half)
$3 or even $10 doesn't seem like much but asking 50 to 160 taxpayers to pony up that amount for just one government person to have an extra holiday makes it feel like a bit more.
I'm not against days off but it certainly is fair to ask the government to consider the cost before adding more.